Department of Education Report Shows Homeschooling Doubled in Size, Became More Diverse

November 5, 2016

Experts are noting that as the homeschooling movement continues to rapidly grow, it is becoming more diverse ethnically, politically, and even religiously.

In November the Department of Education released a report noting that between 1999 and 2012 the number of homeschooled students doubled, from approximately 850,000 to approximately 1.8 million.

“The percentage of students ages 5–17 with a grade equivalent of kindergarten through grade 12 who are homeschooled — the homeschooling rate — has increased over time. The homeschooling rate increased from 1.7 percent in 1999 to 3.4 percent in 2012,” stated the report.

“Most homeschooled students were white (83 percent) and non-poor (89 percent), lived in cities or suburban areas and rural areas. Homeschooled students spanned all grade equivalents.”

Mary Pride, author and publisher of Practical Homeschooling magazine and Homeschool World, told The Christian Post that the “new” homeschooling families are “basically, everyone — a sampling from every demographic, political, and ethnic group.”

“They also don’t necessarily have a complete commitment to homeschooling as such. It’s an educational option that they prefer at the moment,” said Pride.

“The longer a family homeschools, the more the commitment tends to grow, and the more they begin to fall into a more liberty-friendly and entrepreneurial mindset.”

Pride also told CP that she believed a contributor to the rise in homeschooling was how it was becoming easier to do, citing her publication’s social media presence as an example.

“Our own Practical Homeschooling Facebook page was barely launched in 2012, with just about 10,000 likes four years ago,” continued Pride.

“We made a conscious effort to answer or repost every homeschooling question we were asked. Now we have almost 300,000 Facebook fans and are still gaining from 500 to 3,000 new fans every week.”

Ethan Reedy, president of the DC Home Educators Association told CP that he also found the growth trend to include a more diverse set of homeschoolers.

“The homeschool community in America is growing, not just numerically, but in diversity. An earlier generation helped people understand that homeschooling was possible and that it produced better outcomes, on average, than American schools do,” said Reedy.

“Now people from a wider variety of backgrounds are learning that there are significant benefits to being able to tailor a child’s education to suit her skills and interests.”

Reedy also told CP that he believed that issues with public schools were encouraging even secular parents to take up homeschooling.

“There are growing numbers of secular parents who are seeing that they can make wise choices for their children that are better than the choices that would be made by a bureaucrat who sees children as numbers,” added Reedy.

While the Education Department report only assesses data as recent as 2012, some believe that the trend of growth for homeschooling has only continued over the past four years.